The President in the Legislative ArenaUniversity of Chicago Press, 1990 - 259 pages In recent years, the executive branch's ability to maneuver legislation through Congress has become the measure of presidential success or failure. Although the victor of legislative battles is often readily discernible, debate is growing over how such victories are achieved. In The President in the Legislative Arena, Jon R. Bond and Richard Fleisher depart dramatically from the concern with presidential influence that has dominated research on presidential-congressional relations for the past thirty years. Of the many possible factors involved in presidential success, those beyond presidential control have long been deemed unworthy of study. Bond and Fleisher disagree. Turning to democratic theory, they insist that it is vitally important to understand the conditions under which the executive brance prevails, regardless of the source of that success. Accordingly, they provide a thorough and unprecedented analysis of presidential success on congressional roll-call votes from 1953 through 1984. Their research demonstrates that the degree of cooperation between the two branches is much more systematically linked to the partisan and ideological makeup of Congress than to the president's bargaining ability and popularity. Thus the composition of Congress "inherited" by the president is the single most significant determinant of the success or failure of the executive branch. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Sources of Linkage | 12 |
Presidential Success in Congress | 53 |
Party Ideology and Presidential Success | 81 |
Congressional Leadership and Presidential Success | 122 |
The Two Presidencies Thesis | 152 |
Presidential Popularity and Presidential Success | 176 |
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83rd Congress 88th Congress analysis analyze average base unified behavior box scores Carter chambers coalition coefficients committee chairs committee leaders congressional leaders Congressional Quarterly conservative Democrats conservative Republicans correlations CQ's cross-pressured factions cross-pressured members cross-pressured opposition Democratic presidents dent dent's dential domestic policy effects Eisenhower election electoral foreign policy votes HOUSE SENATE important votes increase influence key votes leader support leadership skill legislative levels of support liberal Democrats liberal Republicans measure members of Congress minority presidents Neustadt Nixon opposition base opposition party base partisan party and committee party factions percent political base predicted president and Congress president's base president's party base president's position presidential popularity presidential roll calls presidential success presidential support scores presidential-congressional relations probit public approval Reagan Republican presidents roll call votes success in Congress success rate Table tion tisan unified opposition unified support unify in support unity variables victory